Cruise Fire Was Not Ship's First

Vessel Was Rebuilt In '85, Then Relaunched

May 11, 1996|By EVELYN LARRUBIA Staff Writer

Wednesday's cruise ship blaze in the Bahamas wasn't the first major fire aboard the Discovery I.

The 500-foot passenger ship had to be completely rebuilt in 1985 after it was damaged by a fire during a "cruise to nowhere" from Port Canaveral the previous year. The March 1984 fire damaged five decks, but none of the passengers was seriously injured.

That was when the ship sailed as the Scandinavian Sea, part of SeaEscape Ltd.'s fleet. The vessel was declared a total loss after the fire and was sold through the cruise line's insurance company.

One major repair, two names and four owners later, the Discovery I launched Discovery Cruises Inc. out of Port Everglades in 1987. It was the line's sole vessel until last year when the Discovery Sun started sailing out of Miami.

A spokeswoman with the line's public relations firm could not be reached despite several phone messages left at her office on Friday. And a Discovery Cruises official would not speak to the Sun-Sentinel on Friday except to say there were inaccuracies in a previous story. The official would not elaborate on what inaccuracies he found in the story.

The ship, which was built as a ferry in 1970 and traveled between London and Las Palmas, Spain, has had other troubles.

After a renovation in Valencia, Spain, it started sailing under a new name, Discovery I, for Sea Holiday Cruises in November 1986, according to Alan Kehrer, director of passenger development for Port Everglades.

But that company went under in less than a year and the federal government seized the ship while financial problems were ironed out, Kehrer said.

The ship sat for weeks at Port Everglades until businessman Martin Salzedo bought it and started Discovery Cruises in October 1987.

While owned by Discovery, the ship had two safety problems, a company spokesman said on Thursday. The ship was stranded in the water in 1989 after its engines broke, and another time suffered a fire in a snack bar, which was caused by an overheated deep fryer.

The Discovery I also hit a docked Yugoslavian cargo ship in 1990.

In 1989, the National Transportation Safety Board examined the ship while unsuccessfully trying to convince Congress that it should regulate all cruise ships sailing out of U.S. ports, even those registered in foreign countries, such as the Panamanian-registered Discovery I. William Gossard, the principal author of the safety board's report to Congress, called the Discovery I a potential disaster, citing inadequate exits and low ceilings.

Discovery Cruise Line disputed the findings when the report was released.

But some of the fears of the failure of fire systems, inadequate fire equipment, crew members who didn't speak enough English to help passengers in an emergency and crew members who made mistakes when fighting fires - materialized during this week's fire, according to passengers and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The ship was on a regularly scheduled day cruise from Port Everglades to Freeport, Bahamas, when the fire broke out in the engine room on Wednesday. It was about 2 p.m. and the ship was three miles off the Bahamian coast when the fire began. Despite 10-foot-high flames and smoke plumes visible for miles, the passengers were not told to put on life vests or to go to their lifeboat stations.

Four hours after the blaze broke out, more than 800 passengers and most of the ship's 400-member crew were evacuated when the vessel was towed into Freeport's harbor.

On Friday, firefighters continued to battle the smoldering fires in several compartments aboard the Discovery I, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeff Hall said. The cause of the fire and the extent of the damages to the Discovery I have not yet been determined.

A fuel line that detached in the engine room may have been the cause, but the Coast Guard said its investigators, which will be conducting a dual investigation with the Panamanian government, will not be able to board the ship until it cools.